I recently acquired a large number of Storyville magazine issues – a London-based jazz publication that began in the mid 1960s. I’m reading them in order, one at a time, and it’s quite fun! In issue 6 from August 1966, a writer named Sandy Brown writes on the Isham Jones Orchestra:
“Isham Jones was one of the leading musical figures in the 1920s, as composer, bandleader, musician, and A&R man. As a composer he was most prolific, having something over two hundred of his numbers published, no mean feat when we consider that he also played in and lead one of the most successful dance bands of all time – in itself a time consuming occupation.”
He goes on to note that “All of Jones’ best tunes were written by 1924; three of them (‘The one I love belongs to somebody else’, ‘Spain’, and ‘It had to be you’) in one night!”
After reading that, I had to go pull a few Isham Jones records out while this fact was fresh in my mind. The one that struck me as most interesting musically was “It Had To Be You”, as we can hear cornetist Louis Panico blowing along with the main melody starting at 0:25, getting in one of his trademark “laughing” effects along with some wah wah effects (well before Clyde McCoy).
At 1:30, a sax states the main melody while trombonist Carroll Martin improvises along. At 2:14, Panico joins back in – and at 2:36, we hear a series of unique call and responses between Panico’s cornet and the rest of the band.
Throughout, the music just flows – and you can easily imagine a ballroom full of dancers effortlessly enjoying themselves.
It wasn’t the first recording of this tune – Marion Harris had recorded a vocal version a month earlier in March of 1924.
At the time of its publication, this popular tune was covered by many popular dance bands such as Paul Whiteman, California Ramblers, Bailey’s Lucky Seven, Ben Selvin, and Sam Lanin, among others. It rapidly became a standard in the great American songbook and has since been covered by a wide range of performers in jazz and popular music from Django Reinhardt to Frank Sinatra.
In August of 1924 Isham Jones wrote an article for Etude magazine’s infamous “The Jazz Problem” issue entitled “American Dance Music Is Not Jazz”, in which he declared “Because a song is successful and played by practically every dance orchestra, it is called jazz; but that is not my idea of jazz… I believe the term of jazz would only be applied to its rightful type of music, and that the dance music as played today would be known as American Dance Music.”
So perhaps Mr. Jones would find himself mischaracterized by having his records appear on my jazz-obsessed YouTube channel. Or perhaps our understanding of jazz and how it influenced American music has evolved. From my perspective, Isham Jones, like many early dance band leaders, certainly did play a role in the history and development of jazz.
So Isham – let’s be real – It had to be you.
🎺💃🕺🎶
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois on April 24, 1924.
Released as Brunswick 2614
Credits:
Isham Jones – tenor sax, leader
Louis Panico – cornet
Carroll Martin – trombone
Al Mauling – clarinet, alto sax
Artie Vanasec – soprano sax, violin
Leo Murphy – violin
Roy Bargy – piano
Charles McNeill – banjo
John Kuhn – tuba
Joe Frank – drums